August 27th, 2015 | http://www.lobelog.com/iran-and-the-third-rail-of-american-politics/#more-30695

Iran and the Third Rail of American Politics

by James A. Russell
A distinctive feature of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action between the P-5+1 and Iran to limit Iran’s nuclear program is that the fate of the plan in Congress rests not on the details of actual arms control agreement but on the dreaded third rail of America’s dysfunctional domestic politics.
America’s “third rail” of domestic politics once consisted of a relatively small number of hot button issues (Social Security, for example) that politicians simply could not touch for fear of retribution by the voters.
Over the last 20 years, however, that “rail” has expanded into a veritable superhighway as the number of policy issues now off limits for potential solutions has grown exponentially. The result has been gridlock and paralysis at home and foreign policy failures abroad.http://www.lobelog.com/iran-and-the-third-rail-of-american-politics/#more-30695